As of Wednesday, all NFL teams have completed their 30 private visits with potential draft picks, allowing the young men to head back to their respective homes and wait and see where they will end up.
I have compiled a list of everyone the Steelers announced as visitors and come up with 26, so there are at least four out there that we don't know about since the Steelers always use all 30 of their visits. In addition, some of the visitors I've listed here count as local visits, which teams are permitted to have but don't count against the 30 visitors.
In those cases, I have marked those visitors as local. Here is the Steelers' list in alphabetical order.
- Marcus Allen, S, Penn State
- Reggie Bonnafon, RB, Louisville
- Jermaine Carter, OLB, Maryland
- Duke Dawson, CB, Florida
- Leighton Vander Esch, ILB, Boise State
- Russell Gage Jr., WR, LSU
- Greg Gilmore, DT/3-4DE/NT, LSU
- Quadree Henderson, WR, Pittsburgh (Local)
- B.J. Hill, DT/3-4DE/NT, N.C. State
- Joel Iyiegbuniwe, ILB, Western Kentucky
- Richie James, WR, Middle Tennessee
- Malik Jefferson, ILB, Texas
- Christian Kirk, WR, Texas A&M
- Darius Leonard, OLB/ILB, South Carolina State
- Joran Mailata, OT, South Sydney
- J.D. Moore, FB, LSU
- Tarvarius Moore, FS, Southern Mississippi
- Bilal Nichols, DT/3-4DE, Delaware
- Dorian O'Daniel, ILB, Clemson
- Justin Reid, S, Stanford
- Brogan Roback, QB, Eastern Michigan
- M.J. Stewart, CB, North Carolina
- Matthew Thomas, ILB, Florida State
- Justin Watson, WR, Pennsylvania (Local)
- Kyzir White, S, West Virginia (Local)
- Chris Worley, OLB, Ohio State
What can we learn from that list? It certainly shows some of what the team is thinking.
Obviously, there are a number of inside linebacker and safety prospects, despite the fact the team signed Morgan Burnett and Jon Bostic, respectively, to fill those holes. And they have a variety of guys who will go in various spots in the draft who were brought in.
But there also are some mid-to-late-round prospects at cornerback, receiver and defensive tackle. There also are two late-round prospects at running back — one tailback and one fullback — and one at quarterback.
Last year, the team brought in quarterback Josh Dobbs, linebacker Keion Adams and running back James Conner among its visitors, though, obviously, Conner counted as a local visit. The Steelers selected Conner in the third round, Dobbs in the fourth and Adams in the seventh round.
In 2016, Sean Davis (second round), Javon Hargrave (third) and Jerald Hawkins (fourth) were among those brought in. See a trend?
The Steelers typically wind up selecting two or three players from the group of guys they brought in. But they're also not truly interested in all of the guys they do bring to Pittsburgh. Some are brought in to check or re-check medical status.
Also, on this list is Mailata, a former rugby player from South Sydney, Australia. He likely doesn't count as an official visitor, since he can be signed by any team, not taken in the draft.
But I counted him on this list because he came in during the visit period.
